Journal article

Assessing the cost-effectiveness of treating chronic hepatitis C virus in people who inject drugs in Australia

AJ Visconti, JS Doyle, A Weir, AM Shiell, ME Hellard

Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Australia | WILEY | Published : 2013

Abstract

Background and Aim: To assess the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C virus treatment with pegylated interferon alfa-2a and ribavirin in current and former people who inject drugs (PWID). Methods: A decision analytic model simulated the lifetime costs and outcomes of four treatment options: early treatment with mild fibrosis, standard treatment with moderate fibrosis, late treatment with compensated cirrhosis, and no treatment. Treatment modalities were simulated across current, former, and never-injector cohorts of 1000 hypothetical patients with chronic hepatitis C virus. The main outcome measures were incremental costs ($AUD) per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained, and increment..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

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Funding Acknowledgements

AV was supported by institutional funding from the University of California, San Francisco's Research Allocation Program for Trainees. JD and MH acknowledge fellowship support from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in Injecting Drug Use. JD and MH acknowledge the contribution to this work of the Victorian Operational Infrastructure Support Program (Department of Health, Victoria, Australia) to the Burnet Institute. Institutional support was provided by The Centre of Excellence in Intervention and Prevention Science, Victoria.